City rep calls for alerts to local sewage spills

Published 11:14 pm, Sunday, February 24, 2013

STAMFORD -- Citing public health concerns, a Shippan city representative is pushing for public notification of significant sewage spills or bypasses from the Water Pollution Control Authority.

City Rep. Mary Uva, R-1, has proposed an ordinance that would require WPCA officials to immediately alert Stamford health and harbor officials, marine police and city representatives from affected districts in the event of a sewage bypass that sends sewage into the water. Other citizens, such as members of the boating community or local community organizations, could also sign up to receive notification.

The legislation stems from several recent reports of sewage bypasses from the WPCA into Stamford Harbor and Long Island Sound. Uva said she is concerned about people swimming, boating or fishing in contaminated water.

"The WPCA has had a number of events over the last couple years," Uva said at Wednesday's Board of Representatives Operations Committee meeting. "My constituents are downstream of those events -- there have been small bypasses but there have also been very large, significant bypasses of partially treated sewage. We don't get any notice."

WPCA staff already alert local and state health and environmental officials when the sewage treatment plant undergoes a bypass, which could be as minor as a back-up in a private home or as significant as the release of millions of gallons of partially treated sewage into Stamford Harbor. The state Department of Agriculture mandates the closure of shellfish beds after significant sewage bypasses, and the Stamford Health Department closes the beaches if it determines the water is contaminated with bacteria from runoff following a heavy rainfall.

"I think the spirit's good," WPCA Interim Executive Director William Brink said of Uva's proposed ordinance. "We do tell the health department, we tell the Department of Aquaculture and I believe they would close the beaches as needed and what not."

The WPCA's treatment process and discharge of effluent are strictly monitored under its permit with the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2011, local fishermen complained that frequent bypasses from the plant harmed their businesses by forcing the closure of Stamford shellfish beds.

A review of records provided by the Department of Aquaculture shows Stamford's WPCA bypassed partially treated or raw sewage into Stamford Harbor or Long Island Sound 26 times between March 2010 and October 2012. Some bypasses were as small and contained as 10 gallons of raw sewage.

The WPCA has also undergone several significant bypasses in recent years, however. The plant released more than 25 million gallons of partially-treated or raw sewage into Stamford waters on four different occasions over the two and a half year time period. One bypass, resulting from a mechanical equipment failure on Nov. 3, 2011, lasted 43 hours and sent more than 40 million gallons of partially treated sewage into Long Island Sound.

"I feel rather strongly that we need an ordinance," Uva said. "There's been a lot of issues at the WPCA as we all know."

The sewage treatment plant has had only short-duration, minor bypasses since Halloween, Brink said. Equipment failures, particularly the major breakdown of the plant's clarifier tank, are to blame for historic bypasses into the harbor, and the WPCA staff is working to repair its infrastructure.

"We hope to have all the work on the clarifiers done by mid-March," Brink said.

Brink is not opposed to a proposed ordinance requiring community-wide notification of sewage spills, but said the legislation is too broad in its current form. The legislation calls for the immediate notification of officials, a mandate that would require use of the city's reverse-911 phone system and could result in alerts being sent out in the middle of the night, he said.

"I think we want to work to do something that's reasonable and prudent and we're more than happy to do that," he said. "But right now the way it's written it's pretty broad and it's going to be pretty hard to follow."

Committee members suggested rewriting the legislation to give WPCA officials several hours to contact local officials, and to provide the notification via email rather than by phone. Co-chairman Joe Coppola, R-15, said he supports the ordinance and hopes to vote on it next month after the committee has reworked it.

"We have to make it simple so it doesn't become more cumbersome for the WPCA or anyone else," Coppola said. "I think it's a good idea. We should know as soon as possible after a spill of any significance into the Sound. The people have a right to know that."

The state General Assembly has already passed a sewage spill notification law, which was partly inspired by bypasses at the Stamford WPCA. The legislation requires the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to maintain an online map illustrating the scope and effect of anticipated sewage overflows and post public notifications when unexpected spills occur.

The law, which goes into effect next year, does not go as far as Uva's proposed ordinance.

"It's not implemented yet but also it falls short of what we need because the notice would go to the state website but not to the community," she said. "This would complement the state law, but it stands alone in that it gives the notice directly to the community."